Meet our Director of Technical Support: Ryan

I recently sat down with our Director of Technical Support and asked him a few questions about Customer Lobby. Here are his answers:

What brought you to Customer Lobby?

The perfect intersection of circumstance and opportunity. Circumstances dictated that it was time for me to start looking elsewhere, and the opportunity presented itself.

To elaborate, I loved my previous job. I was being groomed for a managerial role, but at the same time I was growing weary of some of the people and the internal politics they brought to the workplace. Rather than focus on doing the best job I could, it was more important to have a paper trail for everything I did to protect myself from the people who wanted my job or the job I was in the running for. That’s not how I wanted to spend my days, especially at a place I cared about.

Meanwhile, a certain someone at Customer Lobby that I care about a lot had been working there for some time, and I’d already gotten to know a few of the folks and liked the vibe during my lunchtime visits, so when she mentioned they were hiring I jumped at the opportunity. That was almost 5 years ago, and here I remain today.

What is your current position, and what does your typical day look like?

I am the Director of Technical Support, and typically my days are pretty hectic, yet fulfilling. Between testing fixes, investigating bugs, acquiring systems, and responding to questions from every Customer Lobby faction – Sales, Member Services, Engineering – I try to find time to develop ideas and processes to address issues more effectively, expand on toolsets for our internal teams and external users so they can better help themselves, improve our existing products so that they’re easier to use for all, and keep everyone up to date about our ever-evolving suite of features. My favorite part of every day is telling someone that the thing they care about is working the way it should because we made it that way.

What aspect of Customer Lobby do you love best?

Our agility. We respond to our customers, provide solutions, and develop our product faster than any other service that I’ve personally come in contact with. It’s refreshing to know that when people call Customer Lobby during our business hours that we will answer, that when they contact us outside of business hours we get back to them ASAP, and most often within 24 hours, and that we have a rockstar development team that codes things up for us and our customers as lightning-quick as they can. And I’m just glad to be a small part of all that.

If there was one portion of our product you’d like all our customers to know about, what would it be?

Direct Connect, the software we developed to integrate with invoicing software, is the gateway to all the best features Customer Lobby has to offer. If there is any one portion of our product people should know about, it’s that. You can’t even talk about all the really cool stuff we’re doing until you’re connected, and while we offer a robust and proven service without it, there’s so much more once you get Direct Connect working for you. And that’s just it. It’s working FOR you. At a bare minimum, users won’t have to lift a finger to ensure reviews are coming in regularly once it’s set up. And beyond that, we offer Business Insights and Marketing Campaigns unlike anything on the market, and we’ve got more great, data-driven voodoo on the way. But again, none of it exists without Direct Connect, and that’s what our customers should know about if nothing else.

What do you like to do when you aren’t at Customer Lobby?

Away from Customer Lobby, I enjoy cooking, drinking, and playing video games. I also enjoy the same activities while AT Customer Lobby (we throw some great parties around here)! That said, there are a few activities that I enjoy exclusively outside of Customer Lobby, including beer brewing and rock climbing (party ideas, anyone?).

There are times when I’m not at Customer Lobby when work follows me home, and I’ll admit I like that too. I think a lot about what we do and how we can do it better. Still, I do my best to keep home and work separate, although I do enjoy the occasional remote desktop support session early on a Saturday morning to troubleshoot a seemingly urgent, pesky issue… I love my job, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that I like to do Customer Lobby things even when I’m not at Customer Lobby.